I don't mean to pick on your post, but I hope you understand the fundamental difference between the Obama concept and the Trump concept.
Obama raised the debt by solely increasing spending. This is completely unsustainable in the long run, but it does get a Democrat re-elected.
Trump's concept is to initially reduce revenue (ie lower tax cuts) with the expectation that when people keep more of their money then they spend more, which then leads to more businesses opening/expanding, which leads to more people with a job, which then leads to an overall increase in revenue because even though everyone is paying less taxes, there are more paying it. It is the concept that makes up the Laffer Curve that President Reagan proved in the 80's works.
Now obviously, the process takes time to ripple through but I would much rather support a program that ultimately increases the "pie" (ie more people working and paying taxes) than one that increases spending which promotes government handouts that ultimately produce a cycle of government dependency that actually shrinks the "pie".
Just think of your own situation. If you are in trouble, can you spend your way out of it? Is it more reasonable to temporarily go into debt in order to invest in yourself (ie college education, new suit for an interview, move to a new state where more jobs are, etc)?
Just my two cents. Go Tigers!!!
The Laffer curve has been long dismissed. It was a SWAG based on the fact that at 100% tax rate everything stops. There is no way to test gradations (remember when America was that great Trumpian ideal, tax rates were 70% at the top). There is no indication the supply-side economics excuse to redirect money to the top that grew from it has never, ever, not once, nil, zilch times worked. The rising tide does not lift all economic boats.
The Right's favorite demigod Ronald Reagan ended that recession in two ways- 1) tax cuts and as I said before only tax cuts to the middle and bottom work because they spend every cent they can get. Tax cuts like the investment tax credit that target how corporations must behave to get the benefit also work. Just give corps a slug of cash and hoping they do the right things (the Trump plan) just leads to stock buybacks making CEO's heroes to the stockholders and earning them huge bonuses they also don't spend in ways that help the economy. 2) Reagan ran up huge debts with increased government spending. It's call fiscal policy and lowering taxes and increasing government spending.
Taxes are a valuable tool to fight both recessions and inflation. Taxes need to go back up when times are good. Thanks to this silly Reagan worship, every Republican who has run since has run on tax cuts regardless of what the economy is doing.
NEVER conflate government economics with personal economics. It's another GOP lie told so often most all of you believe it. I can't spend my way out of trouble as an individual because I don't have a currency printing press.
Next- everybody on the right must give up this "cut spending" mantra. Again, government econ is not personal econ. Give Obama credit here- unlike our European brethren, we did not practice austerity and they bottomed out way below us and stayed there longer. Governmental austerity in tough times, just like trickle-down, has never ever worked.
GDP is spending and it doesn't matter who spends it and rightly or not, that's how we are measured. It's not debt, it's debt to GDP.
Take an imaginary country with a $10 trillion GDP and a $10 trillion debt. for a debt-to-GDP ratio of 100%. Say $5 trillion of that GDP was government spending. Say times get tough. Tax revenues go down because people are out of work. The government decides to cut $1 trillion of it spending saying "we all must tighten our belts." Your GDP jumps to 111% and tax revenues will further decrease because that $1 trillion in cuts comes from somewhere like government workers or defense contractors who spend that money again at the grocery store (check out marginal propensity to spend). Your GDP shrinks again. Viscious circle.
Finally those "entitlements" we all pay for (social security, medicare) and even those we don't like food stamps create automatic spending every month and that's what kept the 2008 mega-recession from achieving depression status.
Look, I hate identity politics and political correctness as much as anyone on here. Even someone as mild as we consider Robin Williams to have been, he'd have been excoriated by that portion of today's left for making fun of people and would have spent more time apologizing than he did being funny. I don't care about your damn feelings; I care about results.
My team is dead wrong on that but I am still a lefty because the science is right (global warming, evolution, age of the earth) and the economic numbers balance. Well, that and universal health care (denying health care, especially to children is barbaric). You are being robbed blind and being taught to defend it to the death. Sad thing is, I understand it and it's not fixable.
